Upcoming releases
Dras
Tip! Alex Zhang Hungtai stands in stillness on 'Dras', but it's the kind of stillness that contains entire ranges of possibility. Recorded in 2019 inside Montreal's Saint Joseph Oratory (right before a piano demolition, no less), these nine pieces sat dormant on his hard drive through pandemic years until something finally clicked. What emerges now feels like watching someone trace the contours of their own interior landscape, each melodic line a careful negotiation with the unconscious. This is…
Taivaskanava
Taivaskanava by Juho Toivonen. Originally released as a cassette on Grapefruit Records, now getting repressed on cd. Quiet, drifting pieces for late hours, small sounds and open space, carrying the same fragile mood as the original tape. original artwork by Arsi Keva. features spoken words by joshua burkett and plunderphonics rip-off from this kind of punishment. good luck spotting it.
“Solo work by this Finnish musician, who also runs the Akti label. Toivonen’s music is simultaneously rural and…
Fail better
*70 copies limited edition* Eventless Plot and Bruno Duplant join forces on Fail better, a cassette release that treats failure not as an endpoint, but as a method of composition and a way of listening. Across two long-form pieces, the group carves out a delicate space between electroacoustic improvisation, minimalism and ambient abstraction, letting sounds appear, waver and erode rather than declaring them with force.
Recorded by the Thessaloniki-based trio of Vasilis Liolios, Aris Giatas and Y…
Tim Maia 1971
Fifty-five years ago, Tim Maia released his second album, self-titled. As impactful as his debut album, “Tim Maia” (1970), this was the continuation of one of the brightest careers in national music. Considered one of the 100 best albums in the national discography by Rolling Stone magazine, the album returns to shelves this year on 180-gram vinyl as part of the “Classics on Vinyl” collection from Polysom, licensed by Universal.
Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat
On Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat, Charanjit Singh folds centuries of Hindustani tradition into a three‑box Roland future, crafting a 1982 raga‑disco séance that would lie dormant for decades before being hailed as proto–acid house and a cornerstone of South Asian electronic modernity.
Mystic Suite
Let us take you back. Waaay back. According to early Greek mythology, the three powerful sons of the god Kronos divided up the cosmos after overthrowing their father: Poseidon ruled the sea, Zeus commanded the heavens, and Hades reigned over the underworld. Conversely, this latest offering from the Atlantis Jazz Ensemble completes the group's corresponding trilogy - Oceanic Suite (2016), Celestial Suite (2023), and now Mystic Suite (2026). As you might expect, this Mystic Suite, inspired by Hade…
Celestial Suite
On Celestial Suite, Atlantis Jazz Ensemble stretch their spiritual soul-jazz into a full skyward arc, an unbroken studio suite where modal grooves, Afro-Latin currents and meditative codas move like one long, rising breath.
Oceanic Suite
On Oceanic Suite, Atlantis Jazz Ensemble ride a warm, late‑night current of modal grooves and spiritual inflections, with trumpet, alto, Rhodes, bass and drums flowing together in live‑off‑the‑floor conversations that feel both loose and meticulously steered.
Ensamseglaren
Huge Tip! Small repress. "I stood on top of the mountain and looked out over the landscape. It was so beautiful that my chest hurt. The light vibrated, time stood still, and the contours dissolved for a moment. Everything had changed; I felt it then. I took their little hands so as not to lose contact with the ground. Then we ran down the mountain, scraping our knees. Still, we didn't make it. You had already put away all the nautical charts, loosened the moorings and steered out among the skerr…
Or Gare: funeral procession music from Ryfylke, Norway
On Or Gare, Stine Janvin and Morten Joh slow time to a funereal crawl, reanimating Ryfylke’s “liksong” tradition as a ghost‑lit microtonal ritual where voices, synths and creaking percussion hover between lament, liturgy and quietly glowing electronics.
What Was
The first release of a 1995 studio session, produced by Evan Parker. The Kenny Wheeler Sextet includes Ray Warleigh, Stan Sulzmann, John Parricelli, Chris Laurence and Tony Levin.
Chott
On his new album Chott, German-Tunisian producer and composer Taroug confronts his origins. Named after the Chott El Djerid, a vast salt lake in southern Tunisia, the ten-track album revolves around personal history and the search for identity.
Chott is a conceptual work shaped by contrasting atmospheres, from minimalistic melancholy to raw, bass-heavy intensity. It blends traditional instruments with contemporary electronic textures, drawing lines between past and present. Personal materials—su…
Path of Enlightenment
Nat Birchall, saxophonist and composer, one of the most authentic voices in contemporary spiritual jazz, presents Path of Enlightenment, a sonic journey through rarely explored scales and modes, from Ethiopia to Byzantium, from ancient Egypt to South Africa.
For this new recording, Birchall deliberately chose the quartet format - tenor sax, piano, double bass and drums - seeking a cohesion and intimacy that allows the music to breathe and tell its story. Joining him are his trusted collaborators…
At Source
Caterina Barbieri & Bendik Giske's At Source resounds music as wellspring, that which is essential and unknowable, and yet utterly primary. It finds two acclaimed composer-musicians building a world together in self-contained collaboration between analogue synthesis and an extended approach to the saxophone that conjures its own universe of sound. It is at once intimate and cosmic, drawing on the challenges and possibilities of their artistic exchange, tearing down technique to access all the ex…
In My Dreams
In My Dreams brings Bill Frisell together with a circle of long-time collaborators for a rare sextet performance. Featuring Jenny Scheinman (violin), Eyvind Kang (viola), Hank Roberts (cello), Thomas Morgan (bass), and Rudy Royston (drums), the album captures musicians whose connections stretch back decades, now meeting in this configuration for the first time.
Moving freely across Frisell originals alongside jazz and Americana standards, the group plays with an ease born of familiarity and mutu…
Blackpool Cool
Head’s Blackpool Cool was self-released in 1977 on the band’s own Head Records, marking the Scottish group’s third and final album. Long prized by collectors, it stands as a distinctive entry in UK jazz-rock and fusion, driven by an inventive interplay of trumpet and keyboards and a sharp, forward-moving sense of rhythm.
Influenced by the exploratory edge of groups such as Nucleus, the album showcases the band’s creative confidence and the multi-instrumental talents of John Davies. The sound is …
Sing Me Now Asleep
Bill Frisell, Kenny Wollesen, and Carol Emanuel are The Gnostic Trio and their unique blend of minimalism, early music, and jazz has resulted in some of the loveliest music Zorn has ever created. “Sing Me Now Asleep” is their first CD in over five years and not surprisingly it explores some unexpected new directions—notably two ambient-influenced pieces in the spirit of Zorn’s Absinthe and Redbird, and a dramatic long form composition in the style of his cinematic file card works. Enhanced by th…
The Inflated Tear
Last pressed on vinyl in 2005, The Inflated Tear is a studio album by Roland Kirk, released on Atlantic in 1968. Roland Kirk, was a hugely influential, blind jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute, and many other instruments. He was renowned for his onstage vitality, during which virtuoso improvisation was accompanied by comic banter, political ranting, and the ability to play several instruments simultaneously. Pitchfork placed The Inflated Tear at number 170 on its list o…
Never Let It End
Jazz enthusiasts rejoice: the legendary Never Let It End by Albert Mangelsdorff Quartet, a seminal 1970 album hailed as one of the most important in the European jazz canon, receives a fresh vinyl pressing from MPS Records. Originally recorded on March 23, 1970, at Walldorf Studio in Frankfurt under producer Joachim Ernst Berendt, this free jazz masterpiece captures Mangelsdorff's innovative trombone mastery alongside Heinz Sauer on saxophones, Günter Lenz on bass, and Ralf Hübner on drums.
The…
Am I Conscious Now ?
You will be aware of the work of James McKeown and his Hawksmoor project. A catalogue of 13 significant and substantial records made in less than a decade. James can be said to be operating in the realm of ambient music. There are song structures and often beautiful melodies deployed - and more often than you might expect. He can be psycho-geographical, and woozily hauntological at times. There are shades of Eno, Tangerine Dream, Cluster and Michael Rother - but nothing is ever copied. It's deta…